CUSD Counseling Vision Statement

The Capistrano Unified School District School Counseling Program strives to provide opportunities so that every student will acquire the social-emotional, academic, and career skills to reach their fullest educational potential and successfully manage their lives as healthy, responsible, competent, and productive citizens who respect themselves and others.

Adolescent Dating Abuse is a pattern of behavior used to control and intimidate an adolescent partner. It includes but is not limited to hitting, yelling, threatening, name calling, and any form of emotional or sexual abuse. It can happen to adolescents at any age, no matter their level of education or economic background. Dating violence can also occur in same-sex relationships, friendships, current or former partners.

Teens: Are You in a Healthy or Abusive Dating Relationship? Take the quiz.

Not All Attention Problems Are ADHD

It's a common assumption, but there are other causes that are easily overlooked . . .

Trouble paying attention is often first identified by a teacher who notices that a student seems more easily distracted than most other kids his age.

Maybe the child takes an unusually long time to finish schoolwork in class. Maybe when the teacher calls on him, he doesn’t seem to have been following the lesson. Maybe he seems to tune out when instructions are given, or forget what he’s supposed to be doing. Maybe homework assignments often go missing. Article on child attention.

Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?

Parents, therapists and schools are struggling to figure out whether helping anxious teenagers means protecting them or pushing them to face their fears.

It has been a pleasure serving as Tesoro's School Counselor since its inaugural year in fall 2001. I am a graduate of San Clemente High School, in Capistrano Unified. I went on to receive my Bachelors in Psychology and a minor in Sociology from Purdue University and earned my Masters in Psychology from Pepperdine University. I have always made it a priority to work with students and advocate for them. I worked with Capistrano Unified and Pepperdine University through the Safe Schools Act and have teamed up with the PRYDE program through the Orange County Sheriff Coroners Department and Pepperdine University. I have worked with all age groups, but high school is where my true passion lies. I have a wonderful husband and three beautiful children and a mastiff. :) I am honored to be a part of the Titan Family.

Ms. McMichael's Bio:

Hello Titans! I joined the Tesoro guidance team in 2015. I currently live in Los Angeles (yes, I commute...) but I am a native of Palm Springs. I earned my B.A. in Psychology in 2011, my M.S. in Counseling (Option in School Counseling) and my California Pupil & Personnel Services Credential in 2015, all from California State University, Northridge. I was a research assistant in the Social Psychological Research Lab at Yale University in the summer of 2010. My counseling philosophy is that I value and respect each student for their individuality and cultural worldviews; I focus on strengths while providing help with academic or personal life challenges. It is my aim to help students help themselves so that they can be successful when navigating their chosen life path. My interests and hobbies include spending time with my family and pets, constantly changing my hair color, singing, theatre, reading, video games and I recently traveled to Scotland to discover my ancestor's history.

spotlight on: students & fAMILIES coping with gun violence

How to Talk to Kids About Gun Violence

by Lisa Millbrand, Parents Magazine

Sadly, deadly and devastating mass shootings continue to dominate the headlines. How can you share the news about gun violence with your kids?

photo copyright, goodtherapy.org

10 Ways Schools, Parents, and Communities Can Prevent School Shootings Now

by Elizabeth Englander, The Conversation

Photo copyright, theconversation.com

TEEN VAPING & NICOTINE ADDICTION:

IT'S AN EPIDEMIC

Parents: What You Need to Know And How to Talk With Your Kids About Vaping - Child Mind Institute

High school years are full of growth, promise, excitement, frustration, disappointment and hope. It is the time when students begin to discover what the future holds for them. High school counselors have an impact on these years by implementing a comprehensive school counseling program and collaborating with school staff, parents and the community to create a safe and respectful learning environment. High school counselors enhance the learning process and promote academic, career and social/emotional development. High school counseling programs are essential for students to achieve optimal personal growth, acquire positive social skills and values, set informed career goals and realize their full academic potential to become productive, contributing members of the world community.

It is critical that we recognize that there is NO singular cause or preventative measure that could have been taken to prevent these recent tragedies.

During the wait for conclusions to be drafted and research to be properly collected, we offer the following reminders.

The face of suicide is changing. The rate of suicide is increasing in Orange County and all teenagers are at risk, including our high achieving students, athletes, and artists.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people ages 10-24.

Teens at risk for attempting suicide cannot always be identified in a single screening.

Due to the impulsive nature of teens, their age group is at higher risk to make sudden attempts on their lives, seemingly without warning.

We want to address the impact of perfectionism among performance driven teens in academics, the arts, and athletics in Orange County. We believe this is a critical factor to identifying and intervening with "the new face of suicide".

Research confirms that current generations of young adults put more pressure on themselves than generations before them.

This self-imposed pressure to be perfect is a known risk factor to considering suicide.An environment where success is so highly valued fuels this pressure on our teens.

Intolerance for mistakes and weakness make high achieving in academics, athletics, or the arts particularly vulnerable to social isolation when their self-imposed perfectionist standards are not met.

Pursuing perfection decreases the likelihood that these teens will seek help from others.

From ReachOut.com: All teenagers can benefit from being resilient and the good news is that it can be taught, which is why it’s a great topic for discussion in schools and for parents to endorse at home.

Tesoro's counselors

Jaime Runyan, M.A., P.P.S.

Erin McMichael, M.S., P.P.S.

Tesoro High School currently has two full-time credentialed Professional School Counselors on staff, Jaime Runyan and Erin McMichael. Any Tesoro student can see either counselor as they are not assigned by alphabet like they are with Academic Advisors.

The counselors are available for appointments M-F from 6:30am-3:00pm.

Contact info:

Jaime Runyan

Ph: (949) 234-5310 x 15221

E-mail: jlrunyan@capousd.org

Erin McMichael

Ph: (949) 234-5310 x 15017

E-mail: ermcmichael@capousd.org

2019-2020 Counseling intern

Tesoro welcomes a new counselor intern to our team this year. He'll be joining us Sept. 30!

Mr. Andrew Dayog

"Hey Everybody, my name is Andrew Dayog and I am very excited to be working with you this upcoming school year @ Tesoro! I am originally from the San Francisco area. I also spent my college years at San Diego State! I have spent some cold snowy years living in Denver Colorado as well.

I really like traveling to new cities and countries with my Wife. We have been married for 3 years now and we have one beagle named Snoopy. We are planning on starting a family this year as well. Look forward to working with all of you.

Screen addiction

What is Digital Citizenship? Teaching Teens to Be Smart & Safe on Social Media

We've all read news stories about the downside of mobile technology and social media: cyberbullying, harassment, stalking, sexting, catfishing, and the list goes on. It's enough to make any parent want to curl up in a ball and never, ever give their child a mobile device. But, in reality, most kids in the U.S. end up with a mobile phone, tablet, or device in their hands at some point during their teen years — because, despite its faults, mobile technology has made it so much easier for teens and parents to get in touch with each other.